Georg Friedrich Händel

A tireless researcher of ancient and baroque music across all continents, Jordi Savall hadn't ever tackled Handel's Messiah before a series of five concerts in Dole, Besançon, Paris, Barcelona and Versailles in December 2017. And it's that latter concert which features on this new album. In it, we find the Concert des Nations with Manfredo Kraemer as the concertmeister and the faithful instrumentalists of La Capella Reial de Catalunya. Savall assembled a team of soloists with Rachel Redmond, soprano, Damien Guillon, countertenor (who sings parts originally written for a woman's voice), Nicholas Mulroy, tenor and Matthias Winckler, bass. This project was made possible thanks to a Franco-Spanish collaboration. The project matured in the beautiful and historic surroundings of the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, before taking off for a tour of the two countries and winding up as a Christmas present for many fans of Catalan music. © François Hudry/Qobuz

It was for the occasion of the Covent Garden premiere of his oratorio Joshua in 1748, that Handel composed – or rather arranged – the first of his three Concerti a due cori (« Cori » does not mean here a vocal group, but two instrumental groups – two oboes, two horns, and one bassoon each, a total of ten soloists – answering to each other on the playing grounds provided by the strings), namely the HWV 332. At that time, it was customary to lighten up performances of the largest compositions, especially oratorios, with a sprinkling of instrumental pieces. But as Handel was a busy man and a businessman, and producing so much music so fast was no easy feat. This accounts for the fact that so many of his instrumental pieces are in fact recyclings – transcriptions, reorchestrations, transcriptions, according to what was available and requested – of earlier works, mostly his own, sometimes that of fellow composers – who would not necessarily be informed of the pillage. In the case of Concerto a due cori No. 1, Handel plundered a handful of his own operas and oratorios. The second of Handel's Concerti a due cori, HWV 333, written around the beginning of 1747, was premiered at Covent Garden in 1748 as part of a huge musical banquet, the main course of which was the brand new oratorio Alexander Balus. Here, the composer drew from some of his own English oratorios: Esther and Messiah, the latter still quite unknown. The wind groups take over melodic lines given to singers in the original choral versions of the adapted music. The third Concerto, HWV 334, contains mostly brand new music – yes! – even though the first movement is reworked in part from Handel's so-called Fitzwilliam Overture, for two clarinets and horn, while the concluding Allegro, with its brilliant and difficult horn writing, is a rewrite of a hunting aria from his own opera Partenope. For this recording, the Freiburger Barockorchester has added a twist: each soloist group is accompanied by its own string ensemble, thus creating a higly energetic stereo effect. One orchestra is conducted (from the violin) by Gottfried von der Goltz, the other – also from the Konzertmeister position – by Petra Müllejans. © SM/Qobuz

For this performance, Philippe Jaroussky has picked a bouquet of pieces from lesser-known operas. Siroe, Riccardo primo, Flavio, Tolomeo and many others, written for the London stage between 1715 and 1740. With his Artaserse ensemble, which Jaroussky considers to have been the place where he has been able to fully mature, over several years of playing concerts all over the world,  the counter-tenor also presents a reflection on the repertoire of the castrato. Because, since this little procedure was discontinued, the singers tackling these roles have been performing airs which were not written for us, and have to be adapted to us. Bearing in mind that when Haendel put on an opera with a different troupe, he didn't hesitate to re-work entire roles to adapt them to new singers; Jaroussky has taken it upon himself to do the same for some of these airs, which he knows are not suited to his type of voice, and for which original versions with the correct tones are not always available. Regardless, this is an excellent exploration of Haendel's rarities, with some virtuoso turns, and material running from the introverted to the narrative, the lyrical to the explosive. Note that Artaserse are playing without a conductor, Jaroussky leading from the front, with his voice. © SM/Qobuz